The Incredible Andrew Bulger

Bulger’s account of activities from then to the withdrawal from Fort George follows:

During the remainder of the autumn of 1812, I was employed in command of a detachment, at times in an armed vessel acting against the enemy and at other times in a gun-boat, assisting to protect an exposed line of settlements, near the lake shore. While employed on these services, we had been twice under fire: besides encountering no small risk, in the violent storms, which frequently swept over the lake, especially during the month of November.

Fort George, Stoney Creek,  and Chrysler’s Farm

Early in December 1812, upon the formation of winter roads, I was sent (with others) a distance of more than two hundred miles to the Niagara frontier; and, during the ensuing five months, served with the flank-companies of my Regiment upon the duty of guarding one of the weakest points upon our side of the river Niagara: upon the opposite bank of which the Americans were in strong force. For upwards of three months of the winter, we were posted in old, dilapidated farm-buildings. near the river-side, and within eight hundred yards of two heavy batteries of the enemy: from which, however, we experienced but little actual annoyance until towards the spring: when their fire having rendered our quarters untenable, we were ordered into huts, scarcely half-finished, in an adjacent ravine.

The Americans having, on the 20^th May received reinforcements in boats from the west, it was then expected that a descent upon our shore would be attempted:  in which event, our orders were, to meet the enemy at the water’s edge, while troops from other parts of the line would hasten to our support. We passed the nights of the 20^th and 21^st May, under arms, in our old stand, on the bank of the river;  but, instead of crossing to our shore, the Americans, at day-break on the 22^nd, having embarked a large force in boats, dropped silently down the stream.  We waited anxiously for orders: upon the receipt of which, in the evening of the 25^th May, we marched (in heavy rain) nearly the whole of that night and part of the next day – a distance  of about twenty-eight miles  – and, on the following morning, the 27^th, shared in the action near Fort George, in which, not quite a thousand men of different corps, under the command of Brigadier-General Vincent, were opposed to an American force of fully ten thousand men, supported by a fleet of armed vessels carrying upwards of eighty guns.

At this point Vincent thought discretion the better part of valor and made a strategic withdrawal but not before dismantling the fort, and destroying the stores. He directed the troops to fall back to Burlington Heights.

The following, from Bulger,  is part of a dispatch to HQ at Kingston from the Adjutant General regarding the withdrawal. ……Brigadier-General Vincent reports that the movements were ably covered by the companies of the Glengarry Light Infantry, strengthened by a Detachment of the Royal Newfoundland Fencibles ….

The US forces seem to have been poorly organized and because of this and poor weather they did not immediately follow up on their success at Fort George. It wasn’t until 5 June that they were within striking distance of the British. The following is Bulger’s account of the battle of Stoney Creek, although he makes no mention of this name. This battle has been said to be the turning point of the war.

Our troops, when ordered to retire, had sustained a severe loss, but, in the course of the next day we received reinforcements, which raised our strength to about one thousand three hundred men. We reached Burlington Heights on the 30^th of May, and on the 1^st June, it became known that the Americans were advancing from Niagara in three bodies –  their main division of three thousand five hundred men, by the centre road  a corps of one thousand five hundred riflemen by the mountain on our right –  and a considerable force in boats by the lake on our left. In the evening of the 5^th of June, the main division of the enemy encamped within seven miles of our position: and, upon the following morning, shortly before daylight, our troops attacked them in their camp.

The affair occupied little more than half an hour, and was attended with complete success. The Americans abandoned their ground, and in the utmost confusion, ….commenced a rapid retreat….. In the afternoon of the same day, I was ordered to proceed, in command of an escort, for the purpose of conducting American officers – prisoners of war – to Kingston . We were embarked in batteaux, and had to row two hundred miles round Lake Ontario while the enemy’s vessels were continually cruising thereon.

When Bulger reached Kingston with the prisoners he was appointed to the Great Lakes Squadron under Commodore Sir James Yeo as the senior military officer.

On the 1^st of November the Americans decided to take a large force from the Eastern end of Lake Ontario down the St Lawrence to attack Montreal. In Bulger’s words,

a division of gun-boats, manned from the Squadron – and partly by its acting marines, with whom I proceeded – under the command of Captain Mulcaster, of the Royal Navy, hastened in pursuit of the enemy, overtook them on the following day, the 2^nd of November, at a place where they appeared to have stopped for cooking purposes, cannonaded them for several hours, ……and upon the 11^th of the same month, when the enemy, with from four to five thousand men ventured to land upon our shore they were met and signally defeated at “Chrystler’s Farm” by a corps of eight hundred British troops commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison of the 89^th Regiment aided and supported by the flotilla of gunboats under Captain Mulcaster. For this affair, of which the result was an entire break up and dispersion of the American invading expedition…… I have received a clasp for this action. (It is assumed that the clasp, referring to ‘Chrysler’s Farm’ was attached to the Military General Service Medal previously awarded to Bulger, which already had a clasp for Fort Detroit.)

Towards the end of 1813 and the beginning of 1814 Bulger was placed in command of a military guard of 150 men and 6 officers at the Point Frederick (Kingston) naval establishment. The Regiment had been reduced to less than 200 effective men by this time.

At this time also Bulger felt that he was being passed over for promotion and composed a letter stating as much to the Commander of the Forces and requested Yeo to support him. Yeo’s  letter included in Bulger’s Autobiography follows:

Kingston, 1^st January 1814.

I have received the enclosed from Lieutenant Bulger, who has evinced a zeal highly creditable to himself and beneficial to the good discipline of his men; and as he is the only officer of the corps embarked, who has made himself conspicuous, I feel the greater pleasure in complying with his wishes in forwarding his memorial to your Excellency.

(Signed) James Lucas Yeo

Commodore and Commander-in- Chief.

His Excellency Sir George Prevost, Bart.

Nothing came of this request and the next event in Bulger’s outstanding career was about to start.

Michilimackinac

Towards the end of January 1814, an expedition was ordered to be dispatched from Kingston, by a new route, of nearly six hundred miles, to the relief of Michilimackinac, then our only hold on the western lakes, and upon which an attack was expected to be made early in the ensuing spring. The relieving force consisted of ten officers and two hundred picked men, exclusive of twenty artillery-men with a lieutenant and twenty seamen of the Royal Navy. The Commander of the Forces had selected Lieutenant-Colonel M’Douall, of the Glengarry Light Infantry (previously of the 8^th or King’s Regiment) to command the expedition, and I was appointed to serve there on as adjutant to that officer.  A small party of workmen, including boat-builders,having been sent in advance, we commenced our route in the beginning of February, in severe wintry weather, proceeded two hundred and fifty miles into a wilderness;   erected huts in a grove of pine; assisted in opening a road

through the woods for the conveyance of supplies; and, with timber cut down and prepared upon the spot, aided in the construction of twenty-nine large boats; embarked on the 22^nd of April, having previously loaded the flotilla with provisions and stores;  descended the Nottawasaga River – the ice in the upper part of which being still firm, we opened a channel through it – encamped on the night of the 24^th of April, in a most dismal spot, upon the north-eastern shore of Lake Huron;

and on the following morning, entered upon the attempt to cross the lake covered, as it was as far as the eye could reach, by fields of ice: through which, in almost constant and at times terrific storms, we succeeded, with the loss of only one boat, in effecting a passage a distance of nearly three hundred miles, arriving at Michilimackinac on the 18^th of May.

This exploit appears to be modestly understated by Bulger.  In contrast, this is what General Prevost wrote about the crossing July 10, 1814: “The difficulties experienced in conducting open and deeply laden batteaux across so great an extent… as Lake Huron… covered by immense fields of ice… and violent gales of wind…could only have been surmounted by the zeal, perseverance and abilities of the officer commanding the expedition. For nineteen days it was nearly one continuous struggle with the elements…”

At this point Bulger’s  Autobiography outlines the measures taken at the fort in anticipation of an attack from the Americans. Bulger was appointed Fort Adjutant. On June 28 the Americans appeared off the island in six warships each towing a gunboat.

The enemy’s flotilla,  after hovering round the island until the 4^th of August, on the morning of that day, anchored within a few yards of the shore, on the north side of the inland, and, after sweeping the landing place by a heavy fire, disembarked a force amounting to upwards of a thousand men with six guns.

McDouall had a force of one hundred and seventy men,  artillery with two guns, and three hundred Indian warriors. Bulger doesn’t say how long the battle raged, only that the Americans were repulsed and departed leaving three war schooners to blockade the Island. By this time the garrison on the island was running short on provisions. They were to be resupplied from a Nottawasaga River depot but the Americans had blockaded the area and destroyed the vessel, Nancy, commanded by Lt Miller Worsley, RN, which cut off all communications between York and Michilimackinac. Some sources argue that the Nancy was scuttled by Worsley before escaping capture. Worsley’s party,  having escaped inland, managed to deliver some supplies by canoe to Fort Michilimackinac on Aug. 31 (Canadian Encyclopedia).  It was during this trip that the vessels Scorpion and Tigress were discovered by Worsley.  Bulger continues:

As time passed on, our situation became a most anxious one; and, at length, towards the end of the month, we saw ourselves on the verge of starvation. On the 30^th of August, two of the blockading vessels – war schooners of the American Navy – were reported to have anchored in the boat channel one in the lower, and the other in the upper passage, near the island of Saint Joseph’s; and, their exact position having, under cover of the night, been ascertained by Lieutenant Worsley of the Royal Navy, upon the report of that officer, it was resolved to attempt their capture..  Accordingly, in the afternoon of the lst of September – in the short space of an hour – four boats were equipped and manned, one by the naval officer alluded to, with a small party of seamen, and the other by volunteers, from the troops, placed under my command. We rowed with muffled oars, a circuit of nearly forty miles at night, keeping out of sight during the day; and, having carried both the enemy’s vessels, by boarding one on the night of the 3^rd, and the other at dawn of day on the 6^th of September 1814 had the satisfaction of conveying our prizes to Michilimackinac.

I have received the Naval war medal and one clasp for these captures.